This summer, as a wedding guest, you have the opportunity to buy a really useful gift for that special couple, knowing by choosing alternative gifts they are making a truly lasting difference to couples and families in poverty around the world. Instead of worrying about doubling up on gifts or finding all the interesting gifts are gone from the wedding list, you can easily order a gift from World Vision, who will dispatch within 24 hours a beautiful customised wedding card to either the guest or the couple directly. What a great gift to give a newly married couple as they start their new life together!

You can be sure an alternative wedding gift from World Vision will be really appreciated. For example, newly weds, from Nelson in Lancashire, said, ‘We chose malaria tablets and chickens over a blender for our wedding gifts!’ Joanna and Lindsay Marshall, who married last December, asked for ‘alternative gifts’ such as chickens and malaria tablets from international relief and development charity World Vision’s Alternative Gift Catalogue.

Joanna explained, ‘We were already living together and had everything we needed. We knew these gifts would help others. We also sponsor a child in Africa called Nicolas through World Vision. We would never have used something like a blender and our guests thought it was a great idea to benefit others!’

Great wedding gifts include a Cheese Making Kit (£17) to provide a family in Sudan with a new source of income, and Reunite a Child with their Family (£46) to reunite street children in Cambodia with their family. For a groom who is crazy about fishing, get Fish Stock for 6 Families (£17) to provide fish for a new fish farm. Or for a gardening bride, give a Sri Lankan family a healthy start with Seeds, Tools and Training to Set up a Garden (£21).

World Vision’s new Spring/Summer Alternative Gift Catalogue has a range of over 70 gifts to choose from, which will directly benefit nineteen of World Vision’s community projects in poor countries across Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia, as well as gifts that really save the day for use in major disasters and emergency aid situations.

>> Visit the World Vision Alternative Gift Catalogue

>> Visit the charity gifts comparison web site

Shelter have launched a campaign to get Ruth Kelly - the Minister in charge of Housing - to announce the Government’s intent to begin the process of modernising the standard definition of overcrowding.

Shelter have set up a simple email form which can be completed in under a minute. All you need to do is input your name, email address and post code and the form will populate the relevant information in a set email which will aim to put pressure on Ruth Kelly to do the right thing.

>> Click here to email Ruth Kelly to demand she updates the definition of overcrowding - it takes less than a minute!

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 Christian Aid are celebrating their 50th Birthday with a campaign to heighten awareness of their charitable work.

It’s amazing what you can get out of an envelope! (more…)

Housing in the West Midlands has reached crisis point - and it’s the region’s poorest children who suffer the most.

Shelter estimates that more than 150,000 children are trapped in bad housing - ruining their life chances.

The chronic shortage of affordable housing in Britain is why Shelter is urgently calling on the Government to fund an extra 20,000 social rented homes a year (1,330 in the West Midlands) in a bid to end to the housing crisis. (more…)

The UK is a hub for the global illegal wildlife trade with more than 1 million items being seized by HM customs between 1996 and 2000. This is helping to push some species towards extinction.

The Wildlife Crime Unit (WCU) in London plays a vital role in tracking down and prosecuting wildlife criminals. They uncover and stamp out the illegal trade in endangered species, their body parts and derivatives. (more…)